May 30, 2023
To: Supporters of St. Johns By now you may have heard that the then-current board of SJRV held a special board meeting on May 17. At that meeting, the board elected all seven of our group as the new board members. Lynn Sison and Dan Smith had already submitted their resignations. The remaining board members, Jenee Rawlings, Marilyn Mitchell and Jane Martin then resigned. St. Johns now has a new board which is summarized in the attached leaflet. Although it took us 15 months to get the new board elected, it is now done and time to get to work in reopening the Village. See below https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2023/05/27/seven-new-members-appointed-to-the-st-johns-retirement-village-board-of-directors/ This task will not be simple nor swift. We are basically dealing with a new start up. Although many of the former staff have expressed interest in coming back to work at St. Johns, other details such as reissuance of the state license, full staffing of management and support staff, campus cleanup, opening the kitchen, pursuing an aggressive marketing campaign, fund raising, updating financials, bringing the accounting system current, and dealing with other items such as the Chase bank loan, other payables, insurance, etc. are all areas that will be addressed. This coming week the new board will hold its first meeting, during which officers will be elected. Also on the agenda will be ratification of the settlement agreement relating to the resignation of the former board members, as well as an initial review of crucial areas which need to be addressed immediately. We have scheduled June 17, 8:00 am to noon, as a campus cleanup day. My wife Janet is coordinating this and I would encourage attendance at this event. She can be reached at either 530-383-1030 or jlevers105@gmail.com . The walks need to be swept/blown, the hedges trimmed, lawns mowed, weeds removed, etc. This is certainly not crucial to the formal reopening although it will be an opportunity for our community to gather and get this done. COSTCO has agreed to donate the food that will be served at noon, so no one will go home hungry. If you would like to turn this into a potluck, please coordinate with Janet. As mentioned in the article below, St. Johns is a community treasure that needs ongoing support. By support I mean not only money, but also participation in events, communicating with family members, friends and neighbors to get the word out and, above all else, to treat St. Johns as everyone’s retirement village. In the past, perhaps some have taken St. Johns for granted as it has been in operation for over 55 years. Although the Village is a wonderful place that has served our seniors with care and compassion, as a non-profit senior care operation it is a delicate business enterprise. To survive and prosper it needs our constant, ongoing attention and support. Our success in reopening the Village is our primary goal. However, the involvement of our community, everyone (young, middle aged and elderly) need to be there when needed to keep the Village open and thriving for future generations. I will be sending out separate letters to each community member that pledged to donate once our group was successfully installed as the new board. Although the total of these pledges is around $215,000, the Village is going need additional working capital once we have completed detailed financial forecasts, time line for staffing, campus opening schedule, licensing, marketing plan, etc. We need all hands on deck to make this happen, so please join in to help St. Johns return as the only non-profit senior care facility serving our community. AS YOU GET OLDER, YOU REALLY JUST WANT TO BE SURROUNDED BY GOOD PEOPLE. PEOPLE THAT ARE GOOD FOR YOU, GOOD TO YOU, AND GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL.47chakrasishere